Hi,

My current work. I'm particularly interested in your opinion about the white of the tunic (painted with andrea white set); Note that it needs dirt, but will be done later.
Feel free to comment and leave some kind of critique.



Regards
Pedro

The white-tones are looking quite well!

Cheers

Looks fine to me, Pedro. Actually much better than the one I painted years ago!

I think it looks really well!
Maybe some very thinned veils of midtones will soften some of the shadow parts slightly, but as it is now it's already very nice.

Cheers,
Adrian

I should be very satisfied with these white.

marc

Thanks Martin, Gerard, Adrian and Marc for the comments!

Adrian, you are right about midtones of shadow. I don't know why but I can't work with the shadow tones of the set as the light ones.. I made 3 or 4 diferent shadows and still turned out like that... But I will try to smoth that later on.

I think it is a matter of taste but to me the shadows look great ,perhaps i will add the lightest light with pure white with a 1/3 ratio,few passses , just try it,very nice work.

How is that? Diluted? To achieve a more uniform paint work?

what i meant to convey on my comment was that your shadows look great to me, that perhaps i will use pure white to highlight the top top of the crease,so betwenn the shadows and the lightest light you will achieve the midtone you are looking for.
Another technique to blend all the lights and shadows would be having a drop of white Patina and 12 drops of distilled water , in other words a "wash".
I hope you understand what i am trying to explain.
But like i said before, it is a matter of taste, and if you are happy with the result don't change it,to me looks awesome.

I think the white looks great! Better than my attempt at the white set for sure... did you add any other colours or follow the set instructions?
Keep posting progress of this one

Cheers

Colin

Did you use the shadow #6 stright from the bottle or you added some other color to darkened more??

Another question, what is your water to paint ratio por the shadows?

Understood!!! Thanks for the tips, and for the comment

Regards
Pedro

Thanks Colin!
No, for now I only used the 6 colours from the set. In the begining I also had some troubles with the set.... the the result wasn't very much of my taste, but with time I got there. I'm just making various degrees of lights, more than the instructions tell you, to get a more smooth painting, which I find more important in this larger scale figures.

Regards
Pedro

Daniel,

1) I didn't used the 6# shadow as it is from the bottle, mixed it with 5#, but of course, on a higher ratio, maybe 4/1.

2) I didn't used much water, maybe just enough to avoid a very thick layer, probably 40% or 35%, I guess. I think I understand waht you mean, the colour shadows of this set are a bit tricky.

Hope it was usefull

Regards
Pedro

I agree, at the beginning is really tricky to use it, but with practice you get the handle of it.
I am using the set for some of my french regiments in "white" coat ,but when i did my shadows found the #6 and #5 combination as the instruction suggest to be a very "shy" color , i have tried a second figure and did the deepest shadows with # 6 only and still wasn't happy , so i added a tiny bit of vallejo english uniform and worked great.
For my mixes i use the following ratios
Base : 1/1
Lights : 1 (paint) /5 ( water)
shadows : 1 (paint) /8 (water)
toning : 1 (paint) / 12 (water)
Blending : 1 (paint) / 18 (water)

Note: Always try to use distilled water ,tap water contains a lot of chemicals and could change the quality or texture of the acrylic paint.
I use a vallejo or andrea empty bottle filled up with water to have the correct water/paint mix.
I also experimented with Vallejo white glaze to blend in the colors a little, and i think it works fine.
Honestly ,judging by the picture i wouldn't touch or change the work on the tunic ,to looks fine .

I would also not touch the tunic at this stage as it looks good. Once the surrounding work has been done it might bring it together more or you might decide it needs a bit mor work. Also you have to decide if you are going to leave it a clean finish or if you are going to weather the figure. If you decide to dirty him up then there will be other colours to add to the tunic which will vary the lights and shadows.

very true

Thanks for the comments and tips Daniel and Ken.
Daniel very usefull your explantion. Note that the painting ain't equal to every scale/size or the style of the painter, some like more contrast, while in smaller scale figures the constrasts need to be more higher, in my opinion. And you're right about adding another colour to shadow, it won't hurt. I thought of that, specially for those places with less light. By the way, I use bottled water.
Ken, yes I'm going to weather and add dirt, and the reason I photografes already with cape base colour it was to see the contrast that would make. No doubt that with the belts and all that stuff it will be better. And the heraldry he has on that chest.

Regards
Pedro

An update with cape almost done. Still to do Shadows and in some places higher lights. What say you?
By the way, the photos are a little dark.